Industrial vacuum equipment has dozens of wet and dry uses such as hydro excavation, air excavation and vacuum excavation. In addition, the equipment can be used for directional drilling slurry removal, industrial clean-up, waste clean-up, lateral and storm drain clean-out, oil spill clean-up and other natural disaster clean-up applications. The vacuum systems may be mounted to a truck or trailer and are typically powered by gas or diesel engines.
Compressed air has also been used for loosening soil from around buried water pipes, gas mains, and electrical cables, and other buried utilities. However, using a steady stream of compressed air at high velocities generates a large amount of dust and debris blowback at the user during excavation. In addition, the compressed air even at high velocities may not provide enough force to quickly fracture and dislodge rocks and cohesive soils. Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system to excavate that is efficient in all subsurface conditions.